{"id":10863,"date":"2025-01-28T15:29:30","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T20:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=10863"},"modified":"2025-01-28T15:29:30","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T20:29:30","slug":"junior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/01\/28\/junior\/","title":{"rendered":"Junior"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Junior<\/strong> (1994)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (sex-related humor, brief strong language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ivan Reitman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Kevin Wade and Chris Conrad\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: James Newton Howard\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Adam Greenberg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 23, 1994 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, Emma Thompson, Frank Langella, Pamela Reed, Aida Turturro, James Eckhouse, Megan Cavanagh, Merle Kennedy, Judy Collins, Mindy Seeger, Christopher Meloni, Antoinette Peragine, Cassandra Wilson, Kevin West, John Pinette, Anna Gunn, Tracey Walter.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $36.7M (US)\/$108.4M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> **<\/p>\n

\u00a0The third time is not a charm for Ivan Reitman and Arnold Schwarzenegger in Junior<\/strong>, a one-joke comedy that reunites the big guy with his diminutive Twins co-star Danny DeVito. The idea of a pregnant man isn\u2019t unique. It was used to greater effect in the 1978 comedy Rabbit Test starring Billy Crystal. That one is much funnier than this occasionally amusing film. Given the talent involved, Junior<\/strong> should have been much better than occasionally amusing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Research geneticist Dr. Alex Hesse (Schwarzenegger) goes the extra mile to prove the fertility drug he created with OB\/GYN Dr. Larry Arbogast (DeVito) works after the FDA denies their request to proceed with human experimentation. Larry convinces Alex to test Expectane on himself. He then procures an ovum from Dr. Diana Reddin (Thompson, Howards End), the geneticist who took over their lab after the university pulled their funding in light of the FDA ruling.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Lo and behold, the drug works. Alex becomes pregnant. This is when Junior<\/strong> begins to stagnate with a series of stale jokes about pregnancy and all the wonderful things that comes with it- e.g. wild mood swings, strange food cravings, sensitive nipples, etc. We also get predictable subplots like the developing romance between Alex and Diana and a bad guy in the form of university head of research Noah Banes (Langella, Dave). In addition, Larry\u2019s ex-wife Angela (Reed, Kindergarten Cop) becomes pregnant (presumably by a member of Aerosmith) and wants him to be her doctor. That about covers it all, I guess.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Junior<\/strong> should have been great with a director as good as Reitman at the helm. Look at what he did in the past- Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Kindergarten Cop (1990) and Dave (1993). How did he fumble the ball so badly with Junior<\/strong>? The idea of a macho he-man like Schwarzenegger carrying a child is rife with potential. The problem is Reitman doesn\u2019t do anything interesting with it. He seems to think a pregnant Schwarzenegger is funny enough on its own. It is funny, but it only carries the movie so far.<\/p>\n

\u00a0To the actor\u2019s credit, he does a good job with the role. He made the right choice playing it straight. Alex starts off as this stiff, uptight scientist with \u201call the warmth and charm of a wall-eyed pike\u201d. Being pregnant gets him in touch with his sensitive side. Arnold never once knowingly plays it for laughs. He lets the material do the talking. He\u2019s one of the few things in the movie that work. DeVito, on the other hand, doesn\u2019t do what he does best. His character isn\u2019t a nasty little schemer. He\u2019s willing to break the rules, but he doesn\u2019t throw it in people\u2019s faces. This is one of his lesser performances. Did somebody sedate him before filming commenced each day?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The chemistry Schwarzenegger shared with DeVito in Twins is still there, but it\u2019s not as strong. They played off against each other extremely well in the older film. It came off as natural. In Junior<\/strong>, it feels somewhat strained. It lacks spontaneity. It doesn\u2019t help that they\u2019re burdened with a lackluster script.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Thompson, a British actress known primarily for her roles in artsy period dramas like Howards End (1992), The Remains of the Day (1993) and Sense and Sensibility (1995), does a complete 180 with her daffy performance as a clumsy, absent-minded scientist. Who knew Emma had a sense of humor? She\u2019s funny, but seems out of step with everything else. It\u2019s almost as if she\u2019s making a completely different movie. Langella may as well have phoned it in with his autopilot performance as the movie\u2019s villain, an arrogant type looking to take credit for other people\u2019s work. Ho-hum.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Junior<\/strong> does have its moments. Ah-nuld gets off a pretty good one-liner when says \u201cMy body, my choice!\u201d after throwing Banes across the lab. Given the actor\u2019s well-publicized political leanings, it\u2019s funny to hear those words come out of his mouth. It also has its weird moments like when Alex disguises himself as a woman so he can hide out at a retreat for pregnant women. The sight of Arnie in drag is really something.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Unfortunately, the amusing bits are far and few in between. Reitman is content to rest of his laurels and let the concept do all the work. His laziness extends to all of Junior<\/strong> with its predictable story arc and chaotic ending in which Alex and Angela go into labor at the same time. Come on, who didn\u2019t see that coming? Junior<\/strong> is lame. It\u2019s a waste of time and talent. At 109 minutes, it feels dragged out. It shouldn\u2019t take that long to tell one joke. At some point, it stops being funny. That should not have been the case here. Reitman botches it badly. Oh well, nobody\u2019s perfect.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Junior (1994)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (sex-related humor, brief strong language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ivan Reitman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Kevin Wade and Chris Conrad\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: James Newton Howard\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Adam Greenberg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 23, 1994 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, Emma Thompson, Frank Langella, Pamela Reed, Aida Turturro, James Eckhouse, Megan Cavanagh, Merle Kennedy, Judy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Junior-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10863"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10925,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10863\/revisions\/10925"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}